“There is a clearly lack of maritime co-operation in the EU”

“The case of Arctic Sea is a Trojan Horse indicating the current level of European maritime safety, about which I’m personally very pessimistic,” says Timo Hellenberg, an expert in crisis management.

Hellenberg believes that the authorities of different countries know where the lost ship currently is, but are not announcing it because of various different reasons.

“Nordic countries regard this as a criminal investigation whereas the superpowers: Russia, France and the US regard this as a certain risky military operation. Basically, we need to deal with this issue from different angles,” says Hellenberg.

The Russian and NATO Navies are searching for the missing cargo ship Arctic Sea, with 15 Russian crewmen on board, that was carrying timber from Finland to Algeria when it disappeared off the coast of Portugal almost three weeks ago.

Earlier in its voyage, the ship was allegedly boarded by gunmen who held the crew hostage for half a day.